Here Comes the Bride, page 9
“So that was neat,” Cate said, opening her menu. “Unite.”
“Aren’t they great?” Chuck boomed. “Tatiana dances with them sometimes, but she’s still learning, so sometimes we just go and watch. And let me tell ya, I don’t mind watching.” He winked at Ethan then downed the cocktail in front of him.
“So, um,” Cate continued. “What religion are they? I mean, I thought they were probably something from an Eastern tradition, but then they were singing about Christianity and stuff.”
“Totally Fucking Confused,” Ethan chimed in. “That’s their religion.”
Chuck laughed at the sarcasm, but Cate sensed that he was only being polite and didn’t find Ethan’s remark that amusing. “Actually, they embrace all religions, but Ezekiel, the lead singer, is Christian.”
“Really?”
“Oh yes. A while back he had this amazing revelation.” The way he spoke of Ezekiel reminded her of Stone Phillips on Dateline, explaining the tale of a heroic child who pulled his parent from a flood, or an eighty-year-old man who still competed in triathlons. “He didn’t sleep or eat for seven days, and in that time he realized he might be the reincarnated soul of one of Jesus’s apostles. He believes he is here to spread the message.”
Cate nodded politely, thinking of what her mother would probably call Ezekiel. Nuts. The Antichrist. Possessed by the devil. “How intriguing.”
“Chuck,” Ethan said. “He was probably on drugs. No sleeping. No eating. Having visions. It’s a freaking week of LSD.”
Chuck shook his head. “He wasn’t on acid. It’s really quite fascinating. He actually saw Jesus, and Jesus told him that his name is Ezekiel now.”
“What was his name before?” Cate wanted to know.
“Bill.”
Ethan looked at him as if he were crazy, and Cate thought it was best to just change the subject. “So Tatiana, how long have you been in the U.S.?” she asked.
“Six years.”
And remarkably, you speak horrible English. “Oh, great.”
“Uh . . . my parents, they bring me over ven I vas still in grade scul, and then they leave, but I legally emancipate myself from them because I vant to stay.”
Vait a minute, Cate wanted to say. If she had only been here for six years and she had moved here in grade school, then she couldn’t be out of her teens. “How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
If she’d had a drink in front of her she would’ve chugged the whole thing, just so she could have something to do with her mouth. She was at a loss of words. “Well, eighteen! That’s uh . . . young!” What in the world could this eighteen-year-old possibly see in thirty-five-year-old Chuck? When Cate was eighteen, twenty-three seemed over the hill.
As if reading her mind, Ethan flagged down the waitress. “What do you want to drink?” he asked as their server headed toward them.
“Vodka. With a splash of tonic” Cate said.
“Tatiana’s great.” Chuck snuggled up to her. “She’s going to be an actress. I got her an audition for Pam Anderson’s latest pilot. A friend of mine has the connection.”
“Yes,” Tatiana said. “I’m trying out for show. How do you say? Keep your hands folded for me.”
Chuck threw his head back and laughed as if she were his two-year-old who had just done something adorable. “It’s ‘keep your fingers crossed for me!’ ”
She giggled. “Oh. Fingers crossed. I do not know all these things you speak.”
“Isn’t she perfect for television?” Chuck pointed to her, and whether he realized it or not, his finger was aimed directly at her tits. “I mean, look at her. She’s perfect.”
He kissed her again, this time tickling her cleavage. He tickled her cleavage. In public.
“She looks great.” Cate smiled at her. “I’m sure you’ll do great.”
“Yeah, good luck.” Ethan lifted his glass before taking a gigantic swig. “Let us know how it goes.”
When it came time to order dinner, Tatiana ordered a Caesar salad. “You want anchovies with that?” The waitress asked.
She looked puzzled but began to nod her head anyway. Cate thought it was gross, but Czechoslovakians ate differently than they did here.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute,” Chuck interrupted. He set down his menu. “What did you just ask her?”
“Does she want anchovies?” The waitress looked like she had better things to do.
He looked at Tatiana. “Do you know what an anchovy is?”
She shook her head. He turned back to the waitress and sliced his hand over the table before chuckling. “No. She doesn’t want anchovies.”
“I vould like pineapple and vodka.”
“Okay.” Chuck said. “She’ll have a pineapple and vodka with dinner.”
“ID please?” The waitress held out her hand and waited while Tatiana produced a license. Cate almost asked to see it too, but decided she better wait until the waitress left. She watched as the waitress looked at the ID then back at Tatiana, then back at the ID. “All right,” she mumbled before she returned the license.
Cate and Ethan both ordered burgers with fries. As soon as the waitress left they asked to see Tatiana’s fake ID. “It is my friend, Anya. She return to Czechoslovakia for a vile and let me use. She is twenty-two.”
The girl in the picture did look very similar.
“Yes, she is my roommate. I live with her for three years. After my parents leave ve stay together.”
“Ver—I mean where do you live now?”
“I stay vith Chuck for a vile.”
She asked them what an anchovy was, and they spent ten minutes trying to describe the salty, wormy little fish. She kept asking if it was like tuna, and they kept telling her it was more similar to a sardine, only she had no idea what a sardine was either.
“Anyway, so how are all the wedding plans going? You guys! Getting married!”
Cate and Ethan exchanged glances. “They’re going good,” Ethan answered.
“Yeah, we’re running into a little bit of a glitch with my mom. It’s nothing though.” She might not attend the wedding, which means we’ll be marrying in our backyard with a weenie cookout to follow. Hope you guys can come!
Ethan nodded. “Yeah, Connie’s having a hard time with the fact that we might move in together before the big day.”
Tatiana looked utterly puzzled. At eighteen, living with a man nearly twice her age, this made absolutely no sense.
“Old-fashioned, is she?” Chuck asked.
“She doesn’t want to come to the wedding if we move in together, which means she definitely won’t be paying for it and will probably tell my cousin not to marry us and I don’t know what we’ll do. Probably elope.” Every time Cate thought of her mother she felt a sense of sadness creep up on her. The sadness was always there, like a bad sore that she’d forget about until she noticed the Band-Aid.
“Well, I have an idea,” Chuck said. The look on his face told her it was going to be something good, a diplomatic way to achieve peace during the wedding planning. “It’s simple. You guys can have Ezekiel marry you. Did I mention that he’s an ordained minister?”
Ethan signaled the waitress for their check. “Uh, yeah. We’ll figure it out,” he said as he turned back to the table. “I’m sure Connie will come around, but thanks for the offer.”
“Well, just let me know. I’m sure he’ll do it.”
Ethan paid the bill. Outside Tatiana opened her arms to hug Cate. The gesture surprised Cate, as only two hours ago the girl looked as if she wanted to squash Cate beneath her stiletto. When she hugged her, Cate’s feet actually came off the ground, and she could feel her cheeks pressed into the side of Tatiana’s boobs.
“I hope you have vonderful vedding. And do not vorry about mother. I don’t even speak to my mother now. Be happy you have one who didn’t let boyfriend beat you.”
“Oh thanks. Yeah, I’m sure it will be fine. And good luck with the pilot. You’re just beautiful. I’m sure you’ll get it.” She looked at Chuck. “Let us know what happens.”
“Of course, doll.” He kissed Cate on both cheeks.
As they walked back to the car they laughed about the evening and talked about how crazy Chuck was. “Did you see how he had to order for her?” Ethan asked.
“I know. The poor thing. She’s clueless.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket. “I think I have a message.”
She let him listen to his voice mail, figuring all messages probably had something to do with work. He was always flooded with a million messages. In fact, half the time when she pictured Ethan in her mind it was with a cell phone pressed against his ear. When he hung up he slipped his phone back into his pocket then stared off in front of them as if he were preoccupied.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. It’s uh. Fine.”
“Who was it?”
“Well, actually I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want you to freak out so I was just kind of waiting for the right moment.”
No one should ever start a sentence like that. She stopped walking. “What do you mean?”
“Well, uh, that was actually Janet.”
“She calls you?” Her voice remained low. She wanted him to know that she wouldn’t “freak out,” but really she was dying to rip his phone from his hand, demand to hear the message, and tell Janet to go find someone who wasn’t engaged to call.
“Denise gave her my number. She called me yesterday—”
“She called you yesterday?” Her voice wasn’t as low.
“Yeah, she did. But it was just to say hi and congratulate me on getting engaged to you.” He took her hand. “She said she was very happy for us.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Honestly, I forgot. You know, she just moved back here and she said she was looking for a job and I knew that Ryan was hiring at his restaurant and I thought I would help her out. Ryan’s short-staffed, so I’m helping him too.”
Ryan was one of Ethan’s closest friends and a groomsman in their wedding. “You’re going to let her work for Ryan?”
“Yeah, I mean look. I don’t care about her. But I don’t hate her, either. I can still be friends with her, and she’s been through a lot. Her house just burned down. Her parents are divorced, and she doesn’t speak to her mom. She has no siblings. She basically has no one. I feel bad for her.”
She reminded herself that this was one of the reasons that she loved him so much. He had the best heart. However, she knew that women didn’t just randomly move to cities where the only person they knew was their ex-boyfriend. Women didn’t just conveniently decide to use their exes for job resources, or any favors, unless they still had feelings for them. In fact, there was no way in hell she would call Paul for any reason. She was over him, and if she heard he was getting married she would wish him the best, privately. She wouldn’t call to congratulate him.
She’d never been the type of girl to break up with someone and then show up at parties and bars where she knew they hung out. She never called “just to be friends.” When it was over, it was over. Moving on had always seemed like the healthiest thing for everyone. She knew Ethan was over Janet, but was Janet over him? Plain and simple, Cate didn’t trust her.
• 13 •
Hallelujah
The following morning the phone woke them at seven thirty. It could only be one of two people. Her mother or her sister. Ever since Emily had given birth to her first child and become a stay-at-home mom she rose with the chickens, and seemed to believe everyone else did too. Her mother, also an early riser, was the only person who had enough time on her hands to call someone first-thing in the morning. Everyone else she knew was sitting in a commute, waiting in line at Starbucks, or taking a hot shower.
“It’s got to be my mother or my sister,” Cate said, rolling over.
“Are you going to answer it?”
“Yes.” She held a finger to her lips. “Hello.”
“Hey Cate!”
The voice was male, and she felt as if she should recognize it immediately.
“It’s Al!” he said.
“Al! Oh my God, I mean gosh. Oh my gosh.” She had just taken the Lord’s name in vain to a priest. One whom she really needed on her side, on top of it. “It’s so great to hear from you.” She really wasn’t prepared for this. She hadn’t resolved anything with her mother. He was returning her phone call that she’d placed several days ago when the wedding was still on. He’d married all her eligible cousins and now she was engaged. She only had one choice—she had to be open with him about everything. If her mother was going to boycott the wedding, she might be taking him with her, and she decided that Al might as well hear her version.
“Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I was just in Rome for two weeks.” Praise be. This meant that her mother may not have gotten ahold of him yet.
“Rome! Wow. That’s great. What were you doing over there?”
“I went on vacation with some of my friends from seminary. It was kind of a reunion thing for us. Great to be back there. I really miss Italy. And hey, congratulations!” On second thought, if he knew about the engagement, Connie must’ve told him. “My mom just told me.”
Phew! Aunt Agnes had told him. “Well, that’s actually why I was calling. Um, I, well, I was hoping you would marry us.”
“Absolutely. I would be honored. As long as we can work out a date.”
She told him it was November eighteenth and waited while he flipped through his calendar. “That should work out just fine for me. I’m putting the weekend on my calendar.”
Even though Al was one of the most reasonable people she’d ever known, she still felt nervous about coming clean. She’d expected her mother to freak out about moving in with Ethan, or missing church on a Sunday. It would feel worse if he scorned her too.
“Well, I’m running into some real roadblocks here, Al. Ethan and I are, well we’re buying a house. Um, now. We’re in escrow and uh . . . we’re going to live together. My mom has boycotted the wedding. We got in a huge fight, and she’s not coming.” She ended up pouring out the whole story to him while Ethan made pancakes in the kitchen.
As she finished she prepared to listen to a lengthy yet kind lecture on exactly why the Church doesn’t approve of living together before marriage and how as a priest he couldn’t find it within himself to marry them. He wouldn’t be as hysterical and angry as her mother, which would almost be worse, because everything that came from his mouth would probably make sense. He would sound diplomatic and calm, and he’d only be reinforcing everything she was raised to believe. There was no way she’d be able to argue with him. She’d have to accept one of three options: One, Ethan getting a roommate so her cousin could marry them in the church. Two, Ethan and Cate taking out a loan for their wedding while Cate frantically searched San Diego for a liberal Jesuit who would marry them in Founders. Three, they skip the loan and elope.
“Well, listen,” Al said. “Of course the Church doesn’t approve, but let me handle your mother.”
“What?”
“I’ll talk to your mom.”
“Really? Uh, so you’ll marry us? I mean, you’re not going to tell us we can’t marry in the church?”
“Cate, do you know why the Church doesn’t approve?”
“Um, well, yes.”
“Well then. It’s your decision. I deal with this stuff all the time. I’ll tell you the same thing I tell everyone who is in the same boat. Part of getting married is breaking away from your parents.” He paused. “I don’t mean severing ties with them or anything like that. But it’s important to know that you and Ethan are going to be your own family now. You still have your parents and your sister. But your main family, the one that is most central and important to you, is going to be Ethan. Your parents and Ethan’s parents shouldn’t get involved in the decisions that you two make. I’m not saying that living together is the answer, and you know the Church doesn’t approve, but that is a whole other issue. I want you two to start developing your own bond through your own decisions. If you start letting family members interfere now, just wait till later. I’ll be seeing you guys in marriage counseling. You have to set barriers, Cate.”
“But my mom . . . be careful of her. She might change your mind.”
He laughed. “She’s just like my mom.”
“Well, be careful,” she said again.
“Don’t worry. But listen. There is one thing you guys have to do. I want you to attend the Pre-Cana marriage prep class.”
She’d practically forgotten. She knew they’d have to do this. Every Catholic did, and she’d already heard the horrific tales of a sixth grade camp experience with religious extremists who discussed natural birth control all weekend. Nonetheless, she was up for it. She remembered Sarah saying that she and Miles actually felt much closer after their retreat. Maybe it would be a real bonding experience. “All right. No problem,” she said happily. “Make sure you tell my mother we’re doing that. It will help.”
“I will. Oh, and hey, I made you a CD. I’ll put it in the mail.”
“Thanks!”
“Yeah, it has all those old songs we used to listen to.”
Al lived in Arizona, but he’d often stayed with them during summers when they were kids. He was several years older than Cate and had always seemed like a big brother as opposed to a cousin. He was the first person who’d taken her to see a movie in the theater when she was a child. It was E.T., and she’d bawled her head off when the extraterrestrial turned the color of bad steak and almost died at the hands of scientists. To this day it was one of her favorite movies.
She recalled days by the pool listening to Men At Work, or Hall and Oates. He used to buy her CDs and send her letters with music that he suggested. She thought he would’ve changed when he entered the priesthood. But he was the same old Al.
Speaking with him made her feel much better, but she still didn’t want to get her hopes up. She’d had fights with her mother, but none as serious as this. Boycotting your daughter’s wedding was something she’d always associated with the type of drama that would be on Lifetime . It wasn’t something she’d ever expected to happen to her.
